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100+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media | Edutopia

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100+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media | Edutopia

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If you experienced none of these scenarios, then you live in a world of possibility because you grew up with the many social media tools available to support all learners. If any of these scenarios bring back memories as a teacher or student, then you understand that we have many more tools today to ensure that learners succeed despite struggles, because students and teachers have so much more available to meet every learner's needs.

Selecting the Right Tool

For educators differentiating instruction, social media tools embrace collaboration and global access to people and other resources. We give students a variety of learning experiences that incorporate the capability to:

Exchange ideas

Provide positive, constructive, and kind feedback

Provide avenues to connect content with our learners' many different interests

The list of social media tools to differentiate for learning is increasing. This updated post explores more tools. At the end, I've included a link to twice as many tools that have become available in the year and a half since original publication: 100+ resources. First, let's consider the important framework to successfully use these tools for and by the learners.

Differentiating with social media is most effective when we plan learning experiences based on content, process, and product (our lesson structure) and incorporate readiness, interests, and learning profiles (student voice). The following guidelines can help any classroom teacher ensure that the tool used will address students' needs:

1. Be clear about the academic learning outcomes.

2. Assess what students know and don't know.

3. Identify related student background connections.

4. Utilize social networks that can:

Address needs for struggling learners

Ensure that advanced learners are growing.

Connect content to authentic purposes in the world beyond school.

5. Use fog-free assessments that track learner progress.

While the collaboration capabilities of many social media tools can overlap, some may be more effective than others depending on how they're customized for student voice.

Readiness

Readiness focuses on a student's current academic skill level. Work is structured to help them address any gaps or needs for enrichment. Students work in like-skill groups for specific, targeted support to address a common need, such as guided reading or tiered (leveled) activities. They also collaborate in mixed-skill groups to support struggling students with needed skill development. Additionally, experiences can stretch the advanced students in a mixed-skill group -- they may have the core skills, yet the critical thinking challenges them and their teammates.

Consider these tools to assist with readiness:

Interests

Allowing students to tackle work based on the option that makes the most sense to them is crucial for cognitive connections. Seeing a concept in context of a topic in which the learner has great interest -- and possibly expertise -- can help him or her turn abstract ideas into concrete purpose. For example, a young lady's vlog series about her visit to a different country or maintaining and marketing a personal gaming channel opens up many possibilities for demonstration of skills in several content areas.

Here are some tools to help focus on student interests:

Youtube Playlists: There are many videos that address content from different perspectives, including the one way that a particular student or teacher needs to see it. Create playlists (like this one) to provide that variety.

Screencastify, Jing, and Snagit are tools that enable students to capture video of their screen. Video capture software allows students to use their resources such as gaming, coding, or productivity software, and capture it for video uploads. Here's an example using Minecraft: Building a Fusion Reactor from my Minecraft for Learning playlist.

Zoom, Skype, and Google Hangouts are video conferencing tools that include recording. They enable students to connect with field experts on relating content to the world outside of school. Experts are more likely to participate in mentoring and sharing their knowledge when they save time by not having to travel to the school.

Learning Profiles

When students address concepts from diverse perspectives, especially in collaborative groups, it can lead to in-depth understanding. Learning profiles are about providing each student with experiences that incorporate a variety of learning style elements, not just one. Such activities help students find deeper connections, especially if they share points of view via peer reflection and dialog.

Try these tools:

Thinglink uses pictures to place links in different locations where viewers can click to learn more. Here's an example.

Piktochart lets you create infographics to offer a visual explanation of a concept or idea.

Tackk lets you create small interactive pages or build a portfolio of work using different media tools.

Moovly, MindMup, and PowToon are tools that provide students with different ways to express their ideas, such as mindmaps, timelines, and video presentations. Give students a mix of tools and they will find what works best for them.

And the List Keeps Growing

Here is the complete list of 100+ social media tools for exploration. Consider which will best fit the current needs of your diverse learners. More will be added on a regular basis. What tools do you use? Please share in the comments section below. They'll get added to the 100+ list.

Endless Possibilities

We truly are in a brave new world -- the good kind -- where differentiation opportunities evolve due to the variety of social media tools available. No longer are students and teachers limited to resources purchased for the classroom. For example, 1:1 computing grows as schools understand the value of student contact with outside resources. As more schools allow students to use their "internet devices" (i.e. phones), learning options increase with access to social media apps and other online tools such as those mentioned above.

In the past, limited access placed a hardship on teachers to meet the diverse needs of their students, especially when school resources were limited. In this brave new world, we are fortunate to live and work in an environment where the possibilities are endless for getting students what they need when they need it, and in a format that works best for them. How are you tapping possibilities to meet learner needs?

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100+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media

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If you experienced none of these scenarios, then you live in a world of possibility because you grew up with the many social media tools available to support all learners.

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From Vanderbilt University. Very in depth and well done. See "Perspectives and Resources" section in particular.
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IRIS | Differentiated Instruction: Maximizing the Learning of All Students

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The IRIS Center Peabody College Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN 37203 iris@vanderbilt.edu. The IRIS Center is funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Grant #H325E170001. The contents of this Website do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S.

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80 very simple ways to differentiate

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Series of videos from Rick Wormeli, leading Differentiation author and practicioner

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Myths about Differentiation

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My differentiation journey began in 2004 when my principal asked me to attend a weeklong summer conference on differentiated instruction. I was eager to please my principal so I quickly accepted her offer. I was also extremely curious about how I, one person, could possibly address the individual needs of 100 students.

By the end of the conference, I was totally overwhelmed with information: flexible grouping, assessment, inventories, tiered lessons, Carol Ann Tomlinson. My real work, though, didn't begin until after the conference, when I was expected to start using the training I'd received. I was expected to create four differentiated lessons that school year. My methods of differentiation were also observed three times by an administrator from my district. I worked extremely hard that year, but the experience taught me so much.

Throughout that year, I utilized a variety of management pointers for a differentiated classroom that had been presented during the conference. These guidelines helped me to begin integrating basic differentiation without losing my sanity. Here are some of those basic points to help you create a solid foundation for differentiation in your classroom:

Lesson 1

Differentiation does not take place overnight; think of it as a wonderful work in progress. Once I felt comfortable with one aspect of differentiation, I would begin to add something new. For example, I first explained to my students and their parents what would be taking place that year and how it would affect their learning in a positive manner. I then added small things such as allowing my students choices in their reading and writing.

Lesson 2

Like students themselves, differentiation can take on many forms. Differentiation can be accomplished in a number of ways:

Content: What the students learn

Process: Activities used to assist the learning

Products: Demonstration of learning

The methods you use should be based on the student's needs:

Readiness: Student's academic standing

Learning profile: How the student learns

Student's interest

Lesson 3

Learn everything possible about your students. This data assists you in designing your curriculum and lessons:

Administer surveys and inventories throughout the school year: multiple intelligences, reading, writing (PDF), interest, parent, etc.

Analyze prior standardized test scores and administer your own assessment to identify students' strengths and weaknesses.

Lesson 4

Before starting a new unit of study, pre-assess students' knowledge to find out what the students know and do not know about the content in your lesson. This helps you to identify misconceptions, modify instruction if needed, and set up your flexible groups. This assessment may be formal or informal. You may use a variety of techniques to pre-assess such as:

Lesson 5

Begin small. Creating a classroom where individual needs are met can start with one activity, such as allowing students choices. Choices give students a feeling of independence and ownership. Allow students to choose:

Lesson 6

Gradually add more difficult things, such as one differentiated lesson per nine weeks or semester, literature circles, or alternative assessments.

Lesson 7

Set expectations for yourself and your students.

Provide clear and concise directions to students. Students must know what you want them to understand and be able to do. At the beginning of the school year, teach students routines and procedures for entering classroom, turning in homework and class work. It is important that students know what they are doing, where to go, and when to go.

Take ample time to plan, plan, plan; create a schedule if needed.

Lesson 8

Stay up-to-date on best practices by:

Attending conferences or professional development on differentiated instruction.

Observing other teachers in your content area differentiating in their classrooms, and invite colleagues/administrators who are proficient in differentiated instruction to your classroom to observe you differentiating. The feedback is invaluable.

Read literature on differentiated instruction. Here's a brief list of recommended professional books:

The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners by Carol Ann Tomlinson

How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms 2 nd Edition by Carol Ann Tomlinson

Differentiated Instruction: Different Strategies for Different Learners by Char Forsten, Jim Grant, and Betty Hollas

Through the Cracks by Carolyn Sollman, Barbara Emmons, Judith Paoli

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8 Lessons Learned on Differentiating Instruction | Scholastic

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My differentiation journey began in 2004 when my principal asked me to attend a weeklong summer conference on differentiated instruction. I was eager to please my principal so I quickly accepted her offer. I was also extremely curious about how I, one person, could possibly address the individual needs of 100 students.

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In this collection of tools and advice from Edutopia and the web, find resources to help you adjust instruction in response to diverse learner needs and interests.

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We share evidence and practitioner-based learning strategies that empower you to improve K-12 education.

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Reflecting on learning and student voice and choice are core elements of project-based learning, and they're also key to differentiation.

Photo credit: Laurie Sullivan via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Project-based learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction. By design, it is student-centered and student-driven, and it gives space for teachers to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways. PBL can allow for effective differentiation in assessment as well as daily management and instruction.

PBL experts will tell you this, but I often hear teachers ask for real examples, specifics to help them contextualize what it looks like in the classroom. We all need to try out specific ideas and strategies to get our brains working in a different context. Here are some specific differentiation strategies to use during a PBL project.

1. Differentiate Through Teams

We all know that heterogeneous grouping works, but sometimes homogenous grouping can be an effective way to differentiate in a project. Sometimes in a novel- or literature-based PBL project, for example, it might be appropriate to differentiate by grouping students by reading level. That way, I can take groups that need intensive work and ensure they are getting the instruction they need.

Teaming should be intentional, and we need to know the why of how we structure teams. Are you differentiating for academic ability? Are you differentiating for collaboration skills? Are you differentiating for social-emotional purposes? Are you differentiating for passions? If you're a designer or co-designer of a PBL project, teams can be an effective way to differentiate instruction.

2. Reflection and Goal Setting

Reflection is an essential component of PBL. Throughout the project, students should be reflecting on their work and setting goals for further learning. This is a great opportunity for them to set personalized learning goals and for you to target instruction specific to the goals they set.

At specific milestones in a project, one teacher that I observed had students reflect on what they'd learned so far in math and science, and then create goal statements for what they still wanted to learn. The teacher then designed activities to support students in learning not only what they wanted, but also what they needed to know.

3. Mini-Lessons, Centers, and Resources

This is probably one of my favorites. In addition to being a great management strategy to prevent time sucks in class, mini-lessons and centers are a great way to differentiate instruction. Perhaps you offer mini-lessons or center work to support your students' learning, or maybe you show students a variety of resources from which to learn, including videos, games, and readings.

I know a teacher who has a well-oiled PBL machine of a classroom. Students move seamlessly from product work to learning stations, resources, and mini-lessons based on what they know. Students are so in tune with their learning that they are able to truly take ownership of it, and the teacher provides instruction without assumption. Not all students may need the mini-lesson, so you can offer or demand it for the students who will really benefit.

4. Voice and Choice in Products

Another essential component of PBL is student voice and choice, both in terms of what students produce and how they use their time. With the products, you can allow students to show what they know in a variety of ways. From written components to artistic or theatrical, you can differentiate the ways that students are summatively assessed. Their passions actively come into play here.

Again, it all depends on the standards that you're assessing, but don't let standards confine your thinking. Yes, you may have a written component if you're assessing writing, but ask yourself, "How can I allow for voice and choice here?" Embrace possibilities for differentiated student summative products.

5. Differentiate Through Formative Assessments

Formative assessments can look the same for all students. They can also look different. We know that students can show what they've learned in different ways, as mentioned above in terms of products produced as summative assessment. In addition, as you check for understanding along the way, you can formatively assess in different ways when appropriate.

Perhaps you are targeting collaboration in the project. You can differentiate a formative assessment of this in a variety of ways. Perhaps it's an oral conference. Perhaps it's a series of written responses. Perhaps it's a graphic organizer or collage. More importantly, these formative assessments allow you to differentiate the type of instruction needed as you feed forward in the project.

6. Balance Teamwork and Individual Work

Teamwork and collaboration occur regularly in a PBL project. We want to leverage collaboration as much as content. However, there are times when individual instruction and practice may be needed. You need to differentiate the learning environment because some students learn better on their own, and others learn better in a team. In fact, we all need time to process and think alone just as much as we need time to learn from our peers. Make sure to balance both so that you are supporting a collaborative environment while allowing time to meet students on an individual basis.

As you master the PBL process in your classroom, you will intuitively find ways to differentiate instruction for your students. You will design the project to scaffold content and skills in a variety of ways. You will create formative and summative assessments to allow for student passions and goals, and you will manage the process so that it allows you to meet students where they are and move them forward.

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6 Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning

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Reflecting on learning and student voice and choice are core elements of project-based learning, and they're also key to differentiation. Photo credit: Laurie Sullivan via flickr (CC BY 2.0) Project-based learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction. By design, it is student-centered and student-driven, and it gives space for teachers to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways.

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Articles | Books and Publications | Webinars | Online Learning | Videos

Differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching in which educators actively plan for students' differences so that all students can best learn. In a differentiated classroom, teachers divide their time, resources, and efforts to effectively teach students who have various backgrounds, readiness and skill levels, and interests.

Infographic

What Is (and Is Not) Differentiated Instruction?

Look at the definition of differentiation-in terms of what it is and is not-in this infographic to further your learning from the book.

Post it in your office, share it with your colleagues, or circulate it on social media to keep top of mind best practices for differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all students.

What the Experts Say

Articles

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Educational Leadership

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ASCD Express

Booksand Publications

See free sample chapters, study guides, and author interviews.
Find more books about differentiated instruction
Quick Reference Guides

ASCD Quick Reference Guides cover fundamental education topics in a handy laminated format that's perfect for time-pressed study groups or individuals. Learn more

Understanding Differentiated Instruction

This laminated guide from Carol Ann Tomlinson covers the key terms, principles, and practices of differentiation and provides teachers with low-prep strategies for getting started. It is a perfect introductory resource for understanding how to better reach and teach all students.

Webinars

Online Learning

PD Online® Courses

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ASCD myTeachSource®

ASCD myTeachSource is a teacher-focused online learning platform with classroom-focused topic packs. Each topic pack features teacher-driven articles, videos, checklists, rubrics, reproducibles, links, and more. Learn more

Differentiated Instruction for Beginners

Videos

Some videos are available on DVD only. Others are available on ASCD Streaming or both.

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Articles | Books and Publications | Webinars | Online Learning | Videos Differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching in which educators actively plan for students' differences so that all students can best learn. In a differentiated classroom, teachers divide their time, resources, and efforts to effectively teach students who have various backgrounds, readiness and skill levels, and interests.

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Differentiated Instruction

Every teacher already has the tools to differentiate in powerful ways for all learners.

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and crew are so intimidated by the Wizard's enigmatic personality that they struggle to talk with him on equal footing. Fear and frustration overwhelm them as they blindly accept a suicide mission to slay the Witch of the West. In return, they each receive a treasured prize: a heart, a brain, courage, and a way home. Ironically, they already have these gifts-which they only discover after unveiling the man behind the curtain posing as the grumpy wizard.

Differentiated instruction (DI) casts a spell on educators as to how it meets all students' needs. The skill set required to differentiate seems mystical to some and incomprehensible to others in this environment of state standards and high-stakes tests. Where does one find the time? The reality is that every teacher already has the tools to differentiate in powerful ways for all learners. I address some of these elements, such as assessment fog, in other Edutopia posts.

The DI elements were first introduced to me in How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms by Carol Tomlinson, and my understanding later deepened thanks to my friend and mentor Dr. Susan Allan. The core of differentiation is a relationship between teachers and students. The teacher's responsibility is connecting content, process, and product. Students respond to learning based on readiness, interests, and learning profile. In this post, we'll explore the teacher's role for effective planning of DI, and in the next three posts, we'll look at how students respond.

Content, process, and product are what teachers address all the time during lesson planning and instruction. These are the areas where teachers have tremendous experience in everything from lesson planning to assessment. Once the curtain is removed for how these three areas can be differentiated, meeting students' diverse needs becomes obvious and easy to do-because it's always been present.

Differentiating Content

Content comprises the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students need to learn based on the curriculum. Differentiating content includes using various delivery formats such as video, readings, lectures, or audio. Content may be chunked, shared through graphic organizers, addressed through jigsaw groups, or used to provide different techniques for solving equations. Students may have opportunities to choose their content focus based on interests.

For example, in a lesson on fractions, students could:

Watch an overview video from Khan Academy.

Complete a Frayer Model for academic vocabulary, such as denominator and numerator.

Watch and discuss a demonstration of fractions via cutting a cake.

Eat the cake.

This example should reassure teachers that differentiation could occur in whole groups. If we provide a variety of ways to explore the content outcomes, learners find different ways to connect.

Differentiating Process

Process is how students make sense of the content. They need time to reflect on and digest the learning activities before moving on to the next segment of a lesson. Think of a workshop or course where, by the end of the session, you felt filled to bursting with information, perhaps even overwhelmed. Processing helps students assess what they do and don't understand. It's also a formative assessment opportunity for teachers to monitor students' progress.

For example, having one or two processing experiences for every 30 minutes of instruction alleviates feelings of content saturation. Reflection is a powerful skill that is developed during processing experiences. Some strategies include:

Of these three DI elements, process experiences are least used. Start with any of the shared strategies, and see long-term positive effects on learning.

Differentiating Product

Product differentiation is probably the most common form of differentiation.

Teachers give choices where students pick from formats.

Students propose their own designs.

Products may range in complexity to align to a respectful level for each student. (I discuss readiness in another post.) The key to product options is having clear academic criteria that students understand. When products are cleanly aligned to learning targets, student voice and choice flourish, while ensuring that significant content is addressed.

For example, one of my favorite practices is providing three or four choices in products. All but the last choice are predeveloped for students who want a complete picture of what needs to be done. The last choice is open-ended, a blank check. Students craft a different product idea and propose it to the teacher. They have to show how their product option will address the academic criteria. The teacher may approve the proposal as is or ask for revisions. If the proposal is too off-focus, the students work on developing a new idea. If they can't come up with an approved proposal by a set due date, they have to choose from one of the predetermined products.

Reach Higher

Content, process, and product are key elements in lesson design. Fortunately, educators have many instructional tools that can differentiate these core areas of instruction, such as these 50+ social media tools, which set the stage for students to respond through the next three DI elements in this series:

I do an activity where I ask participants to stand and reach as high as they can. Then I ask them to reach even higher. They do. When considering your students' needs, reach even higher in your practice-that extra stretch is inside us all-and students will benefit.

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3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do

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Differentiated Instruction Every teacher already has the tools to differentiate in powerful ways for all learners. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and crew are so intimidated by the Wizard's enigmatic personality that they struggle to talk with him on equal footing.